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Mv Deak Bkothkr: 

We seud to you, as a friend of the Indian race, this Article of 
our Indian girl, "Vada." It tells its own pathetic story. "Vada" 
is a Chri.-^tian girl, 16 years of age. She is a member of this "WoR- 
CKSTEK Indian Academy of Vinita," the only Congregational 
Indian Mission iSch(X)l of the Am. H. M. Society. 

Please read the article yourself on account of its merits and 
thrilling interest, and we know you will desire to have it read to your 
Sunday SchfX)l and Missionary Society. It will give you some idea 
of tlio class of inintls we are given to work upon, the kind of work 
we, as a denomination, are called to do, and the blessed results we 
may expect. Let us make this one Indian school worthy of our name, 
and an evidence of our Hinrorc purpo.se, in the place of abuse and 
wnjng, to do justice to the* hxlian race; to elevate and save the people 
of these tribes. 

We greatly need funds. Witli the needed money at hand, we can 
furnish here, in this Indian Land, e<pial, and better results, than can 
bo attained outside and at a <iistance. Can you not, will you not help 
U8? If you deBJre special information about <>ur life and work among 
the Imilans, wc will aii.s\\«r, to Ito rca<l to your Sunday School or 
Mibslonary Society, any letter you may send us, and any (juestions 
you may ask. 

l"uM(N may be sent to the Secretaries of the A, H. M. Soc, or 
may be sent here. 

Yours Sincerely, 

ISAAC N. CI X HA LI., 

Prircipal cf The W:rcor.cr Itiian Academy of Vinita, 

VINITA, I T. 



THE WORCESTER ACADEMY OF VINlTA. 

AX rxnr.i.y school or the AMERiCAy home MissioxARr soriETr. 



PAGES 



Gl]er"ol(EE Indiaq fetoitj] 



Vi IKK.VTII IKI» AViril 



s.wH i:i. Ar>ii\ \yi)kci:sTi;k. n. ii 

torn M YtAR* A MlttlONARV Or THE A. B. C. F. M. 
AMOMO THf CHCROKtES. 



:^ Vapcr 



i;i \h \i rill « mmmi vrKMi.NT UK wokckstm: \( \i>i;mv 
\\ \iMi \. iM» ri:i{...n \K is. ik«<4. 



U\ Mjs> NE\Ai)A rorcii 

A Mii. i,o. o< f... Acjdemy 



t.,..^MED FOR THE INSTITUTION 
TIIIUO KI»ITI«»N. MKVISKK. 



\{ V. >tii<ll.\ A- < «.., |'rmt«i>. >t. I.<.ni« 



.0.5 Iv/f 



COPYRIGHT SECURED. 



Ylic Woi'des^tei' Sdadeniv of Viiiita. 



Is a ( onjrre^ational Mission School, intended especially to 
ffive tlje best educational advantajres to Indian boys and 
^nrls. 

It is located at \'inita, (.'lierokee Nation, Indian Terri- 
tory. 

It was established, and is suppijrted by the American 
IIojMf Missionary Society. 

It lias a I'xtanr of Directors, composed of the best citi- 
zens of the locality. 

Only a Nominal Tuition is charged to students, about 
sufVn'ient to meet the incidental expenses of the school. 

The Salaries of the Teachers are paid from Congrega- 
tion:il Home Missionary fun<ls at New York. 

Tbe Homo Miflsionary Society at New York appoints the 
teachers, as it furnishes the funds. 

The s<'h<M)l is depjMident on tlie beneficent regard of the 
friends of Indian Missions. Material interest in this work 
is urgently solicited. 

The condition of the Academy is prosperous, increas- 
ingly so. Its el!lcieney would be greatly promoted if 
buildings could be innnediately erected for boarding and 
trades purposes. 

Faci'i/i V OK Insthuction. —Rev. I. N. Cundall, Prin- 
cipal; .Miss .\da .\. Durham, Miss Cordelia Myers, Miss 
Madge (Joodykoontz, Assistants. By either of whom 
letters of in(|uiry will be promptly answered. 



THE LORD'S PRAYER IN CHEROKEE. 



hitVTi,Tn cf>*f(^itB^ cS)yit a^ ts. Jj^^yit^v^z s=(»ysET, e<yByc« 
afhy^>^ ivRT, Dcf R&<L-v^^(r r^n hA.9-iiT. Eoiio-. 

INTERPRETATION, WITH PRONUNCIATION ACCORDING 
TO THE ALPHABET. 

aw ^i daw da | ga Iv la di ehi | ga, \v tjuo di yu | ge se 
sdi I de tsa daw v i | dsa gv wi yu hi ge sv | wi ga na nu 
gaw i I a ni e law hi | wi dsi ga li sda | ha da nv ste gv i | 
na sgi ya | ga Iv la di | tsi ni ga li sdi ha | ni da daw da 
qui sv I aw ga li sda yv di | sgi v si | gaw hi i ga | di ge sgi 
V si quo naw | de sgi du gv i | na sgi ya | tsi di ga yaw tsi 
na haw | tsaw tsi du gi | a le tla sdi | oo da gaw le ye di yi 
ge sv I wi di sgi ya ti nv sta n?; gi | sgi yu da le sge sdi quo 
sgi ni I oo yaw ge sv i | tsa tse li ga ye naw | tsa gv wi yu 
hi I ge sv i I a le I dsa li ni gi di yi | ge sv i | a le | e dsa ly; 
quo di yu | ge sv | ni gaw hi Iv i | e me n. 

TRANSLATION. 

Our Father | heaven dweller, | Hallowed | be | thy 
name. | Thy kingdom | let it make its appearance. | Here 
upon earth | take place | Thy will, | the same as | in 
heaven | [it] is done. | Daily [adj.] | our food give to us | 
this day. | Forgive us | our debts, | the same as | we for- 
give I our debtors. | And do not \ temptation being | lead 
us into [it]. I Deliver us from | evil existing. | For thine | 
the kingdom | is, ] and ] the power | is, | and | the glory | 
is, I forever { amen. 



P .^ O E S 



CHEROKEE INDIAN HISTORY, 



A^ Il'KM II IK1» W ITU 



I )lx\ S. .\. W'ORCHSTHR 



— in — 
MISS NK\ M)A < ol ( H. 



Our Institution is called Worcester Academy, in honor 
ol iU'\ . Samuel AuHtin Worcester, D. I)., u true and tried 
Itleiid of the (.'herokee people. 

It is (In- purpose of this o>^say to collect such facts as may 
he availahle, from what^jver source and in whatever form, 
pertaininjf to the early and later life of this eminently 
faithful and ^'<>od man, with some leading fads of (Jhero- 
kee Indian history ideiititled with it. 

Kev. Samuel Austin Worcester was sprung from an 
honored anrestry. The "Worcester Family Jiecord" traces 
him hack through eight generations of ministers of the 
gosjiel. He was the son of Rev. Leonard Worcester, of 
I'eacham, N't. Ills mother was Kli/aheth Hopkins, daugh- 
ter ot Kev. Samuel Hopkins, l>, D., of Hadlev, Mass. 

He was l»(»rn January 1!», 17*JK, at Worcester, Mass., from 
which place, when the t^hild was «iuito young, his father 
removed to Peacham, Vt., to hec<jme pastor of the Con- 
gregational Church at that New P'ngland town. The 
father had been a printer, and left that occupation to 
enter the ministry. An illustrated family bible is said to 



6 



be in the hands of the family, which was published by 
him and printed with his own hand. Here the lad grew 
up, and in the Academy of Peacham, then under the cele- 
brated "Jeremiah Evarts, he was fitted for college. 

The Church of which his father was pastor was feeble, 
and the means its salary furnished the family was limited. 
Consequently we find young Worcester, when ready for 
college, walking the seventy-one miles distance to Bur- 
lington, in the fall of 1815, that he might enter the "Uni- 
versity of Vermont," of which his uncle, after whom he 
was named, Rev. Dr. Samuel Austin, was president. 

He remained in college through the entire course, and 
graduated, with the honors of his class, in 1819. He ex- 
perienced religion in his sophomore year, during a college 
revival, and connected himself with the college church by 
profession, in September, 1817. After the delay of a year 
in teaching, he entered the Theological Seminary, at An- 
dover, where he graduated in 1823. 

After leaving Andover he was employed in the Mission- 
ary Rooms at Boston, with Jeremiah Evarts, who had 
succeeded his uncle as Secretary, and by hifn was advised 
to become a missionary to the Cherokee Indians, and learn 
their language, which was then considered as difficult as 
the Chinese. He was ordained to the gospel ministry in 
Park Street Church, Boston, with Elnathan Gridley, Aug. 
25, 1825, his father preaching the sermon. 

He was married July 19, 1825, to Miss Ann Orr, daugh- 
ter of Hon. John Orr, of Bedford, New Hampshire — a 
woman who possessed a large share of common sense, 
coupled with a good degree of vivacity and wit — a pupil 
of the excellent educator of women, Mr. Joseph Emerson, 
of Byfleld, and a schoolmate of Mary Lyon. Though plain 
in person, her conversational powers were of a high order. 
Her home education partook of the Puritan sort, of which 
she was never ashamed. 



^Afterwards Secretary Evarts of the A; B, C. F. M., author of the 
"William Penu Letters in hehalf of the Indians," and father of Ex. 
Secretary, &c., AVm. M. Evarts. 



The churches at the East during the years immediately 
preceding, liad become intensely interested in the work of 
Foreign Missions. This interest succeeded the years of 
wonderful revival in New England, the results of which 
had become specially manifested in the young men who 
were in course of education in the colleges of Vermont, 
Massachusetts and Connecticut. 

Tiie missionary interest which had become marked at 
Williams' College, and made sacred by the names. Mills, 
Hall and Richards, mjou identified itself in special organ- 
izations for the spread of the Gospel abroad. 

When Mr. Worcester had completed his studies, this 
interest had become directed in this country to the Indian 
tribes, and by the side of Mills, Hall, Richards, stood now 
afresh the honored names of Mayhews, Elliot and Brain- 
erd. Already a movement had been made among the 
Cherokees, at their old home in Georgia. What more 
natural than that, six (hiys after his ordination, we should 
find Mr. Worcester an<l his excellent wife, in the earnest- 
ness of their Christian zeal, leaving home and its endeared 
associations ; ho, desiring to give his life and lal^<jrs where 
he felt tiie Lord tlirected his >teps, ollering himself to the 
servieo of the then only Missionary Board representing 
his own fait!) and the faith of his fathers. 

So they embarked from Boston, August 31, 1825, for life- 
long labor to the Cherokee Nation, whose tlevelopment 
and interest Mr. Worcester had most heartily adopted, 
and to which he was to give the busy years of a struggling 
devoted life. 

They arrived at liraiiu-rd, lOast Tennessee, on the bor- 
ders of (icorgia, October lil, 1H25, where they labored until 
Ih'Jh, when they removed to New P^chota. 

In IsHi Dr. Samuel Worcester, pastor of the Tabernacle 
Church, at Salem, Mass., the first Corresponding Secretary 
of tlie American Jtoard of Commissioners for Foreign Mis- 
sions, in whose church the five first foreign missionaries, 
three years before, had been ordained, wrote, congratulat- 
ing Rev. (Jyrus Kingsi)ury, on his success in having estab- 



— 8 — 

lished, the year previous, among the Cherokees, by aid of 
an Indian chief, the site of the Brainerd Mission, on the 
banks of the Chickamauga — " a point ten miles from the 
place made famous forty-seven years later by the repulse 
of the Union army, on the banks of the creek which some 
rebel termed the " River of Death," and seven miles, also, 
from the brow of that Lookout Mountain, where, in " the 
battle of the clouds," the Confederacy received a stunning 
blow. The Missionaries called it Brainerd. A neighbor- 
ing height still bears the name of "Mission- Ridge." 
Little thought he then that only five years later his own 
spirit would take its flight heavenward from that very spot. 

A few weeks before the arrival of the nephew and his 
wife at Brainerd, where the boarding school for Cherokee 
boys and girls had been established and was in operation, 
Mr. J. C. Ellsworth, the superintendent, on reading a letter 
from the Secretary of the Board, said : " We are soon to 
have a minister and an old acquaintance, Samuel A. Wor- 
cester, a scholar who can learn the Cherokee language." 
Reading the next page, he remarked to Miss Sawyer, 
teacher of the girls' school: "He is just married to Miss 
Ann Orr, a former school companion of yours." Miss Saw- 
yer at once exclaimed . "A Worcester and an Orr united 
in marriage! they are strong characters. We shall have 
to mind our P's and Q's when they get here." 

When the people were collected at Brainerd to hear the 
new missionary preacher for the first time, according to 
custom, a Cherokee name must be given to him. An old 
Indian woman said: " He is very white ; " and suggested 
a name in Cherokee which meant "green," Charles Reese, 
the warrior mentioned in Mrs. Sigourney's " Traits of the 
Aborigines," was standing by, and exclaimed: "No, no. 
He knows a great deal ; he must have a better name." 
After considerable discussion in Cherokee, they agreed to 
call him A-tse-nu-sti, " a messenger," and a messenger of 
good tidings he was ever after to that people. 

There was general rejoicing at other stations, on learning 
that there was now a prospect that tracts, hymns and other 



literature would ere long be published, as Guess', or 
Sequoyah's Syllabic Alphabet, was soon to be used in pub- 
lishing a national newspaper, partly in English and partly 
in Clierokee, at New Eehota, the eapitol of the Nation. 

Mr. Worcester and wife spent, two years at Brainerd, 
encouraging and strengthening those of the mission family 
to whose lot it had fallen to repair, improve and add to 
the buildings. Here his ingenuity and skill in mechani- 
cal work was in requisition. He was slow, patient and 
generally successful. 

Hen*, at Jirainerd, his first child. Ann Eliza, who after- 
wards became the wife of Rev.W. S. Robertson, was born— a 
woman of rare intellect and power, who, true to family 
instincts, has given her whole life to missionary work, in 
tlie Cberokee Nation at first, and from the day of her 
nnirriage, in the Creek Nation. For many years, and up to 
this writing, in advanced age, she has been, and is engaged 
in translating the Bible, hynms and tracts, into the 
Creek <*r '^ Mus-ko-ker'^ language. 

His work of translating, with the aid of an educated 
•Cherokee, was soon after intcrrui)ted by the unrighteous 
laws of ( MMirgia ; but tbe ycarly+ almanac, and two or three 
important tra«;ts, were scattered among tbe people, most of 
wliom judge<l bim a very learned man who could know so 
much abcjut times, seasons, sun, moon and stars. 

I)r, \V«>rcester entered most heartily iut<j whatever 
served the best i n teres t«< of the Cherokee Nation. When 
he saw new and unlawful encroachments made ui)on their 
lands, tlie sure precursors of a forced removal, with its 

•l-.lin- HuiMlniiit; afliMwiinls hv Kfv, Sti'i>h«Mi Forciimn, n-centlv 
<|.. . 1^. .1. fiitlicr of Di. ri»n-iiiaii, (if \ inita!. of Mr. KdiMiuaii, the 
Mi.^^i'iunu Jhraiil, Dec. K'..;, lia^ ilii.«* notice: "Mr Stei»lieii Foreintui. 
;i « i. ,1,. v., Ill,' inuii, wlin ieeei\ei| liis elo?iientar>' eilueatioii al 
I 111 ' ii CmikIvS ('it-ek, ami after attemliii;; to >()iiie j)ie- 

li:i' Ml Mr. \V(ireestei- al N<'\v Keliuta. >|ient one > ear at 

(111 I „;(iil >einiiiar>,in Viririnia, and anntlier at that in 

rnneetoii, Stw .l.i.-»i'\. in the 'stnds of theoh);^_\, was licensed to 

Iireai'h by the I nion r'reshyt«-iy. Tenni-ssee. al)ont "tiie lirst of Oct. 18.'i:5. 
Iv l^^eaeile^ witii animation and ihnney in the Ciierokee lanfruaKC, 
and i)n)niiM'.H to In* hi^ldy useful as an evan^eUst among his people." 
tThe ealenlations for which were mud«*.year by year, Ijy the cele- 
brate<l mallieniatician, Itcnjaniin (Jrecnleaf, of llraillord, Mass.. 



— 10 — 

attendant hardships and cruelties, his heart was touched 
with sympathy, and he spoke boldly and acted fearlessly 
in their defense. He, and the other missionaries who 
acted in concert with him, became marks for the special 
hostility of those who were determined to deprive the In- 
dians of their country and their homes. 

Dr. Worcester regarded the course ihey were pursuing 
as both wicked and cruel, and the laws they were enact- 
ing, as unconstitutional. 

When the shafts of persecution fell, they struck the mis- 
sionaries first. By various machinations, the consent of a 
small minority, the Missionary, Rev. Mr. Willey says : 
" sixty me/7, and no chiefs," was declared to be the will of 
the nation to give up their lands ; and the whole nation 
was ordered to leave. Pending negotiations on their be- 
half, by which it was hoped the Indians could remain, 
Dr. Worcester resisted the law, and encouraged the deter- 
mination of the Cherokees to remain unless removed by 
force. 

For his firm fidelity to the Cherokees and what he be- 
lieved to be right, he was arrested time, time and again. 
The first time, while in the midst of his duties, on Sunday, 
March 13, 1831, he was arrested by the Georgia Guard, 
representatives of a Christian State, carried more than 100 
miles, and discharged. He was arrested again by the 
Georgia Guard, July 7, 1831, treated with rudeness and 
insult, and put in prison, after being marched on foot 
many miles. He was released July 23, on giving security 
for his appearance in court in September. During these 
transactions Mrs. Worcester was, and had been for some 
time previous, confined to her bed by sickness. The fol- 
lowing sentences from his letter to his Excellency, George 
R. Gilmer, then Governor of Georgia, will show the firm 
temper and spirit of Christian fidelity and faith of the 
devoted man, whose name every Cherokee has high rea- 
son to revere. Referring to charged criminal hostility to 
the humane policy of the General Government, he says : " I 
cannot suppose that your Excellency refers to those eflTorts 



— 11 — 

for the advancement of the Indians in knowledge, and in 
the arts of civilized life, which the general government has 
pursued ever since the days of Washington, because I am 
sure that no person can have so entirely misrepresented 
the c<nirse which I have pursued during my residence with 
the Cherokee people. ... If the opposition is that I have 
had the misfortune to differ in judgment with the Execu- 
tive of the United States in regard to the tendency of 
those measures recently enacted for the removal of this 
and other tribes, and that I have freely expressed my 
opinion, I cheerfully acknowledge the fact, and can only 
add that this expression of opinion has been unattended 
with guilt. . . . Shall I, then, abandon the work in which 
I have engaged? Your excellency is already acquainted 
in general with the nature of my object, and my employ- 
ment, which consists in preaching the(rospel, and making 
known the Word of God among the Cherokee people. As 
to tlie means used for this eiid, aside from the regular 
preachingof the Word, I have had the honor to commence 
the work of publishing portions of the Holy Scriptures and 
other religious books in the language of the people. I 
have the pleasure of sending to your Excellency a copy of 
the (tosptl of Matthew, of a hymn book and a small tract, 
eon?*isting chielly of extracts from Scripture, which, with 
the aid of an interpreter, I have been enabled to prepare 
and publish. Tlu''rractofScrii)ture Extracts has been pub- 
lisbed since my trial and ac<iuittal by the Superior Court. 
.My own view of duty is that I ought to remain and quietly 
j)ursuo my labors for the spiritual welfare of the Cherokee 
people until I am forcibly removed. If I am correct in 
tlie appr«'lu'nsion that the State of Georgia has no right- 
ful jurisdi<;tion over the territory where I reside, then it 
follows that r am ujider no moral obligation to remove in 
compllan(;e with her enactments ; and if I suffer in conse- 
quence of c»)ntinuing to preach the Gospel and diffuse the 
written word of Cod auKmg this people, I trust that I 
shall be sustained l>y a conscience void of offence, and by 
the anticipation of a righteous decision at that tribunal 
from which there is no appeal." 



12 



Dr. Worcester was arrested the third time August 17, 
1831, but released the next day, on account of the death of 
his youngest daughter, to attend whose funeral he had 
just reached home, after a sad ride of 52 miles, to his sick 
wife and bereaved family. 

He was finally arrested, with Dr. Butler, and taken be- 
fore the Superior Court of Georgia, on the 15th of Septem- 
ber, 1831, and on the following day they were sentenced, 
by Judge Clayton, of Georgia, to four years' imprisonment 
at hard labor, in the Georgia Penitentiary, at Milledge- 
ville. 

It is true, all this was claimed to be under cover of law, 
but a law aimed at the missionaries, because they stood in 
the way of the most nefarious plans. 

When the State of Georgia sent a guard to arrest him, 
he called his family together in his wife's sick room, and, 
inviting the soldiers also, he conducted family worship 
with accustomed ease, and then, gently bidding adieu to 
his wife and little daughters, he followed the guard to the 
court room, several miles away, attended by no counsel, 
and to plead his own cause, though he was a postmaster 
at the time, and, as a United States official, exempted 
from their authority. 

In January, 1831, Mr. Worcester and his companions had 
received notification of a law requiring all white jnen re- 
siding on the Cherokee lands to take the oath of allegiance 
to the State of Georgia and get a license from the Governor, 
under penalty, if found there after the first of the follow- 
ing March, of penitentiary imprisonment at hard labor for 
not less than four years. It was under this law they were 
to stand trial. 

When the blow fell and the sentence was finally given. 
Dr. Worcester, leaving his sick family, accepted it with all 
its indignities — the hardship, cruelty and persecution it 
betokened. 

Nine other persons were arrested, tried and sentenced to 
the same punishment by this court, among whom was a 
Methodist minister, Mr. Trott, (father of the Trott Bros, of 



— 13 — 

Viuita,) and a Cherokee named Proctor. The latter was 
for two nights chained hy the neck to the wall of the 
house, and by the ankle to Mr. Trott, and marched two 
days chained l»y tlie neck to a wagon ; and Dr. Butler was 
marched also with a chain about his neck, and part of the 
time in pit^-h darkness, with the chain fastened to the 
neck of a horse. So says Dr. Bartlett in his " Sketch of 
the North American Indians." 

As they fame within siirlit of the penitentiary walls, one 
of the guar<i called out in derision : ** Fear not, little flock, 
it is your Father's good pleasure t^ give you the kingdom." 

Mr. Worcest^T said the sptak*-! little knew the <'omfort 
he gave. 

On their way lo tii<- p«'iiii.-iii i:iry :ii Milledgcville, they 
sometimes passi'd village-- w her«' Christians indulged in a 
measure of sympathy for ibmi. At one of these villages 
they spent tlu* night, and, by riMpiest (jf the pastor of the 
church, were permitted to attend tlie Monthly Concert of 
I'rayer. TIh- Itad.r, a P^astern man, read and suul-- the 
psalra - 

I.' ill till- r<H »..r Aunt fnoh. 
ThuH to iilniM' llii- Mins <.f «;oi|?" 

At the close of the scrvit-e the pastor's wife exclaimed : 
"An everlasting blot on the State of (Georgia I ''■ 

On tlieir arri\al at the gates of the penitentiary, pardon 
was oflercHl to the whole on condition that they would 
promise not again to reside in the Cherokee country. 
With this ofl'cr all c<nnplicd, except Dr. Worcester and 
Dr. hutler, who were ac<-ordlngly thrust into prison. 
They were, like ihe other convicts, arrayed in the prison 
garb, and Mr. Worcester was set to work at the cabinet- 
maker's tra«b<, while his ((jrnpaiiiofj, j)r. I'>iitlei-, took the 
>li().iii;iker's liench. 

-wtup CH- •riiiii Ministers c«»iidf'iime(l tliciii, 

aii'i >\ M.-n their \vi\i-^ W.I. ..II 111. II way to s«»o thcni. ur;,'('«l thut they 
ohoiihl nsr thfii iiitlii<-iicr to h-jul tljt'ir hiisl»iiii(ls to siil)riiit to tlic 
«triirtfia law . ii-t a rhri-tian «liit\ . Mrs. Wofcrstn's answer to on** of 
tliivHi- wii-H, "If svv tlioiiKlit we woiihl say oni- \vor<l to weaken tlir^ 
ptirposu of our i)iiM)>iiiMl!j we wouUl not ^^ounotlier steji." 



— 14 — 

During the time they were separated from their families 
and labors, condemned to an ignominious punishment, 
and shut up in a penitentiary with felons, they had been 
placed in a most trying situation, requiring great fortitude 
and a firm reliance on the faithfulness of their covenant 
God and Saviour. Nor should it be noticed with less grati- 
tude that they were enabled so well to maintain the Chris- 
tian character, and to exhibit in all the trials and sufferings 
to which they were subjected, that meekness and benev- 
olent forbearance which the Gospel requires. It is be- 
lieved that in all their correspondence there was not one 
word which indicated an angry, unforgiving or vindictive 
spirit. 

They held stated religious services on the Sabbath, and 
during the last five or six months all the prisoners were 
assembled, and Mr. Worcester was requested by Col. Mills, 
the keeper, to preach to them one-half the day. A spirit 
of inquiry was to some extent awakened among the prison-' 
ers, — a number w^ere savingly and permanently benefited. 

Mrs. Worcester and Mrs. Butler visited the prison, and 
were received kindly by Col. Mills. Mrs. Butler was quite 
overcome, but Mrs. Worcester carried out her determina- 
tion that no Georgian should see her tears, lest the}^ should 
construe them as regretting her husband's coiirse, which 
she never did. 

The second Mrs. Boudinot, in her "Reminiscences," 
thus describes this visit to the penitentiary : 

" When the year came round, it was proposed that Mrs. 
Worcester and Mrs. Butler, with their children, should 
visit their husbands and fathers. Accompanied by a kind 
missionary brother, Bev. William Chamberlin (grand- 
father of the Chamberlin Bros, of Vinita), eight in 
number, they travelled over the same rough road, which 
was made smoother years later when Gen. Sherman left 
Grant to capture Richmond, while he was marching to 
relieve our Union boys from a prison equally cruel and 
unjust. The hand of God w^as in each. Col. Mills, the 



-15- 

kind keeper, received these families at Milledg-eville as 
Christians, and Gov. Lumpkin and his amiable Xorthern 
wife showed them kindness. 

" When the children met their fathers in prisoners' garb 
they shrunk back from their proffered embrace, but rallied 
when smiled upon." It was father and child. 

Mr. Worcester and Dr. Butler remained in this incar- 
ceration at hard labor, according- to the terms of the sen- 
tence, for sixteen months, when they were liberated by 
the (Jovernor, Jan. 14, 1833. They immediately returned 
to the stiitions which they had respectively occupied in 
the Cherokee country, and resumed their labors; but still 
iniiependent in their consciousness of rijrht, in refusinor to 
take the obnoxious oaths. 

The following' is a copy of the letter to (iov. TiUmpkin, 
written by Dr. Won-ester. \\ hie}) Ifd to Ins lehvise froiu 
the (ttH>r;ria penitentiary : 

" I'KMTKN riAKV, M I LLKIKJ EVILLE, 1 

Jan. 8, 183:5. i 

"7'o//M KxcrUrncif WiImoii /jUi/i/»f:i/i, (iorrmor of (icoi'fjia. 

" HiK : In reference to a notice j,nven to your Excellency 
on the L'8th of November last, by our counsel in our l)ehalf, 
of our intention to move the Su])reme Court of the United 
States, on the second day of February next, for further 
process in the case between ourselves individually, as 
plaint ills in error, and t!ie State of Georgia, as defendant 
in error, we have now to inform your Kxcelleiicy that we 
have this day forwarded instructions to our counsel to f(jr- 
bear th«« intended motion, and to prosecute the case no 
further. We beg leave respectively to stjite to your Excel- 
h'ucy, that we have not been led to the adoption of this 
measure by any change of views in n-gard to the principles 
on which we have acted, or by any doubt of the justice of 
our cause, or of our perfect right of a legal discharge, in 
accordance with the decision of the Supreme Court in our 
favor already given, but by the apprehension that the 
further prosecution of the controversy, under existing 



— 16 — 

circumstances, might be attended with consequences in- 
jurious to our beloved country. We are, 

Respectfully yours, 
(Signed) S. A. Worcester. 

Elizur Butler." 

The Governor was highly offended with the latter part 
of this letter. He thought that it would have been suffi- 
cient to give him a simple notice of the withdrawal of their 
suit, without insulting him with the declaration that they 
were altogether right, and the State altogether wrong. 
Whereat, after consultation and deliberation with politi- 
cal friends, a second letter was written, January 9, saying 
they meant no indignity, etc., but " simply to forbear the 
prosecution of our case, and to leave the question of the 
continuance of our confinement to the magnanimity of the 
State." After five days of deliberation on the Governor's 
part, and of suspense to them, he was satisfied, and they 
were told by the keeper of the penitentiary that the Gov- 
ernor had ordered their discharge, but no reply was ever 
made to the prisoners themselves. 

Mrs. Robertson, his daughter, gives an account of this 
transaction, in a letter to the collator, as follows : 

"They would neither forsake their work, or perjure 
themselves, so took the penalty, and appealed to the Su- 
preme Court. They employed a lawyer, Mr. Chester, to 
plead their cause. The celebrated Wm. Wirt, then in 
public life, also volunteered on their behalf, and, refusing 
compensation, argued the case before the Court. The de- 
cision of the United States Supreme Court was given in 
an order that the missionaries must be set at liberty. The 
State of Georgia refused to release them, ' except at the 
point of the bayonet.' After this the missionaries with- 
drew their suit, thus leaving the question of State Sover- 
eignty to he settled by bloodshed at a later day.^^ 

The tale of the removal of the Cherokees from their 
Georgia home, made dear to them by the most sacred 
associations, is one of the saddest of the many sad stories 
of Indian history. After every effort, it was found that no 
modification of the treaty requiring their removal would 



— 17 — 

he granted. It had seemed inipossihle to them that a 
treaty so iiiiciiiitoiis and oppressive would be executed. 
The order will he enforced. While the military were 
Catherine: around them, like the vultures round their vic- 
tim, and while numerous fortifications were erected in the 
country, they remained quietly in their homes. Late in 
the season, the missionaries celehrated the Lord's i^upper 
for the last time at Rrainerd, and sixteen thousand people 
s<»on bade a mournful and reluctant adieu to the land of 
their fathers.* A tive months' journey was before them. 
Sick, and well,(jld men and children, mothers and infants, 
throuurh the winter months they travelled on, from six to 
ei«;hteen miles a day. There were births and there were 
•leathH, but the deaths, ahis I were two to one. They aver- 
ajred thirteen deaths a day. They arrived at last, but 
more tlian four thousand — more than one-fourth of their 
\N hoh* nuMjher — in that ten months' time, they had left 
Iteneath the sod. That this shockintr mortality and ill- 
treatment was borne so patiently is a woniler. Jieligious 
sorvicea were held by the companies aloup the way, and 
probably the inlluence of the missionaries had to do with 
the prevention of that outburst whi«h liad been predicted 
by the government. The followin«: year, however, brouu^ht 
loan untimely end three of the six men who had sold their 
country by si^rnin;; the treaty. Major Kid^je was way- 
laid and shot; John liidge, his son, was taken from his 
bed and cut to pieces ; tKllas lioudinot was decoyed from 
his hous»' ""i -^'(i" will. Upiv*'- rind hatchets. 

•Tlu- ( coiiipri.s»*<l moil' lliati oii«'- 

liiill of th . Ihth pHil of Kfiitiu-kv. tlif 

Hoiitliwi'Ht « <•) IK 1 .M . . oii-.i*l« r.«l»l«' pnrtioii of tin- Caioliiias, 

11 !«iimll portion oi ' kI tli«' nortliriii part of Alaliaiiia It 

toiiipn"<«Ml iiioi-f tli;ii .irie.Hof IuimI. I'lt-vioii.- to isju. JT.oOd.iMio 

lu-rrs hiiil iH-rii dJMiio.Ht .1 oi. i. HviiiK still H,(KX).fH»o acii's. Tluy lett not 
<»nly tiu'ir laml'*, l»ut tlirir homes. 

♦ Mr. .John I{i«t;.'r nn«l Mr. Klitis Bomlinot wvyv cousins, and \v«'r«' 
sclioolinatrs in tin- Mission S<-hool of tlic Ann-rican P.oard, at Corn- 
«iill. Conn. It WHS \\vvi\ at ( ornwall, thai Mr. I'.ondinot nn-t liis 
lovrlv and uifn-d wif«>. u dauKlitrr t>f .lnd;:r (ionid of Unit i)laef. 
Wln-n Mr. and Mr.-. W<.rc«'sti-r n-acln-d tin- <lnroktH' country. Miss 
|)flik'ln Sai««'nt, w iio nfterwards Jn'canu' tin-scfond Mrs. IJoudinot wa.s 
an ixrrlliMit tt-at Iwr in tin- l{rain«'rd Mission i^lR" still livi;s at licr 
KiiHtfrn honi«", vi;.'on»ns at past four .scorr year.'*, and the only one 
ii«»\v rrniuininii of tlM"{'o workers of thost' early trying days. 



— 18 — 

But it must be remembered they had passed tlnoii«:h a 
most terrible trial, during which their deportment had 
been worthy of a Christian people. Posterity will judge 
which displayed the higher type of civilization— the Chero- 
kee Nati« n and John Ross its noble chief, or the Senate of 
the United States in those years, the President and the 
Legislature of the Christian State of Georgia. 

It is perhaps due to the six men who "signed the lands 
away" by signing the treaty of 1836, to say, that they 
claimed to have affixed their names under a positive assur- 
ance from Rev. Mr. Schermerhorn, the United States agent, 
that the treaty should not be held binding until the 
consent of the Ross delegation, then in Washington^ had 
been obtained. 

After Georgia extended her laws over the Cherokee 
Nation, the land was overrun by a very wicked class of 
her population. The new regime compelled the admission 
of whisky, with its attendant evils and crimes. Mr. 
Boudinot felt that the only hope of his people was In get- 
ting away as quickly as possible. The "Promised Land" 
had been pictured in bright colors, and was to be theirs 
exclusively "while grass grows and water runs." 

Though Dr. Worcester urged Mr. Boudinot not to sign 
the treaty until the consent of the majority had been 
secured, he thought he could see ruin and misery coming 
upon his people. He could endure it no longer. He signed 
the treaty, though he knew, as it so soon proved, his act 
was at the risk of his own life. 

Dr. Worcester regarded him as being at heart as true a 
patriot as ever lived, and, at his open grave, spoke of this 
as the only act of his life which he disapproved.* '■'-They 
have cut ojf my right hand! ^^ he exclaimed, as he reached 

*Mrs. Kobertson writes : "I do not remember ever to have heard my 
father speak so strongly of the loveliness, integrity and Christian 
worth of any one as he did of Mr. Boudinot to the little group of 
stricken ones that stood around the o])en grave. And referring to the 
act which had resulted in that cruel death, he spoke of it as the only 
instance of his swerving from this general rectitude, saying that even 
that was caused by his desire for good to his people, and was an 
instance of that doing of •' evil that good may come," against which 
the apostle Paul Avarns us. 



-19 — 

the l)ody of his murdered friend. And truly Mr. Boudinot 
had been his ri^ht hand, as interpreter, as translator, and 
in Cliristian work He had been a brother, not only to 
Dr. Worcester himself, but to the feeble wife left behind, 
when her husband was in the penitentiary. The daughter, 
referred U) above, says that among her earliest recollec- 
tions are tliose of his conducting the exercises at the grave 
of lier little sister, while her father was away on account of 
the threat«*ued arrest at Brainerd Mission, and while her 
mother was too sick to be present. 

The Kev. Dr. Butler came with the Cherokees on their 
removal to their home in this new land. He journeyed 
with the Didian people and shared with them the hard- 
ships of the way. Dr. Worcester, his wife and his three 
little dauKhttTs, made the journey in tadvance of the 
Cherokees, he huving been driven from his work at New 
lOchotii, when the <iaughter, now Mrs. Hitchcock, of Fort 
<JIbHon, was but si.x weeks old. On this account, Mr. 
Ueese, (the same one who had named the father,) named 
the babe "( ia-tua-ya,'" ''dispossessed," a name with which, 
she says, she has been w»ill satislifd, as suggesting the 
sharing of her father's h«juse with the indignities and rob- 
beries o( the thousands of mourning and disconsolate 
Cherok««e househoUls at that day. In 1815 there were 
I0i),()0() Didians east of the Mississippi. Of these 70,(»00 
were Cherokees, Creeks, Chickasaws and Choctaws. 
Where are they now? Why, and by what means? It is 

Ml linii;;!) riMi\ iiiomI tinil llit- onlv liopr of ri'sriic rtoiii ilcst nu-t ion 
to ilif CiHMokfi's lii\ III tln'ir irmoviil. Iir frit it \vroui< lor a iiuiii to 
-iuii iiw ay till- romury of liin trilji- without l^rin;; iiulliori/cd l)y tin- 
tinijority." Ami. in twin. Mr. Houdiiiofr, 1 ive lor Dr. Worecslfi" wiis 
wi'll ^iliowii, wlirii, H|)<-iikiii;; lo aiiotlicr iiiissioiiiiry ot tli<* <-irciiiii- 
•«tanr«"H«»l lii> »i^iiiii;{ tlif trrtity iiikI its coiisi'iiiirticfs, tii- i-xi-laiuit'cl, 
ai- I nMnriiihcr In- wonlsj wn'li Mtroii:; ciiioiioii. " hor niyx'll', I can 
lii'ur wlialrxi'r <>oiiii-s upon UK', Imt t<» sc** Mr. NVoivcster thrown into 
siifh trouhii' by my lU'tioii srrni-i almost morr than 1 t-an hear." 

♦ Thr fiut of Dr. \V.>iv«'st«-rs coniin;; W«'st l.rfoif tlif si;;nin;;ot tiic 
tr«'aty. was oiu* of tin* mo>t iiii|iortaiit in his lil«« in rr;rar<l to tin- fccl- 
iiitf «'\«-it«'(l ill many ol th<' ( lu'i'ikri-s that In- had drsfiifd llifir cause. 
Doiili||i»«s his siilfcrin^ in feeling in coii-ciiiinicc was more keen than 
diiriiiLC all that he had |iassei| throii;;h in <ieor;<ia lint ins |iiir)iose to 
'■ spend ami he -.pent " lor t h«* ( 'herokees was never shaken, and when 
tliev talked ol drivin}{ him fnnn anion;; them as a "treaty man," he 
stin\ if tlH-y slioiild, he would set up Ids iirintini; press just across the 
line and >{o on with his work ou the Scriptures, in their hehall. 



-20- 

not forgotten— it will go down with our traditions — that in 
1838 General Winfield Scott, at the head of 2,000 United 
States troops, entered our territor}^ and drove us from 
our homes. Dr. Worcester remained with the Cherokees, 
faithful and beloved to the time of his death. 

Two of Mr. Worcester's most striking traits of character 
were his humility and his meekness. The meekness with 
which he bore contradiction was very strongly spoken of 
in the Presbytery of Maryville, Tenn., of which he was a 
member for a time. The peculiar circumstances in which 
he was often placed might have led to complaints of un- 
kind treatment received, but never did a word of the kind 
escape his lips. His humility was w^ell illustrated on one 
occasion, when, after his receiving the degree of D. D. from 
his Alma Mater, a brother minister addressed him as " Dr. 
Wortceser." " Don't doctor me," he exclaimed in tones 
so beseeching as to make it really touching ; but for once 
he begged in vain. 

What Dr. Rufus Anderson, in the " Memorial Volume," 
says of his instructor, Jeremiah Evarts, is equally true of 
the pupil at Brainerd and Park Hill. " His personal ap- 
pearance was by no means imposing, but he had a mind 
and a heart that made him a prince in the domain of intel- 
lect and of goodness." 

Dr. Worcester's daughter, Mrs. Robertson, writes : "It 
was ver}^ pleasant to me, in visiting my father's native 
town in my own school days, to find how affectionately 
his memory was cherished there for what he was in his 
young days among them. The work he did in improving 
his father's house and grounds in his college vacations was 
shown me with pride. How little could he have foreseen 
while his hands jvere so employed, that he would one day 
be called upon to use his mechanical skill within the walls 
of a penitentiary, or that his work would ever be found in 
a state capitol. My father's cheerful submission to cir- 
cumstances was shown on his way to the penitentiary, 
when, before being chained to his bed at night, he walked 
back and forth singing, the chains attached to his ankles 



— 21 — 

dragorin^ along the tloor. On reaching the gate of the 
penitentiary, tl»e keeper was not on hand with the kev so 
wiiile tljey waited there, my father lay down on theground 
and UM)k a go<jd sleep. 

" Fn 184.{ I saw Rev. Dr. Patton, of New York, who told 
me of visiting the two missionaries in the prison, and he 
saiil they were the happiest men he ever saw in his life. 
As to his work among the Cherokees, he was sent out with 
a special view of giving to tlie Clierokees books in their 
own language, and he never lost sight of this object ; espe- 
cially did he long to give them the liiblcas fast as pos- 
sible." 

}fe at one time commenced preparing a (Jeographv for 
the (Jherokees, and pursued it with much zest for a while, 
and abandoned it because he saw it would take too much 
time from his work on the Bible. 

lie had both a Grammar and a Dictionary of the Chero- 
kee language in a forward st^ite of preparation, when he 
was compelled to leave the place of his labors at New 
Kchota. These manuscripts, with all the rest of his effects, 
were sunk with a steamboat on the Arkansas. 

Dr. Worcester was compelled to remove to Brainerd, 
beyond the chartered limits of (ieorgia, March lo, 1834. 
.\fter waiting thcr«* a year, feeling that he was losing time 
from his great work, and that there was no hope of his 
being able to resume it permanently east of the Mississippi, 
he came West with his family, making the journey in a 
small tw«>-seated ambulance, leaving Brainerd April 8, 
1h;{.'>, an«l arriving at Dwight, on the Salisas, May 29, 1835. 
Tin* n«'Xt fall he remove*! to the old I'nion Mission, on 
(J rand lUver, set up again his mission press, and had 
printing done for both (.'herokees and Creeks, while his 
house at I*ark Hill was in building. To that he removed 
December, 2, lS.3t>. There he established a day school and 
printing otllce, and tjjere he built up a church, whose 
menjbers mourned as for a father when he was "taken 
from the evil to conu\" just Itefore the war which proved 



— 22 — 

so terrible to the nation of his love and care. He labored 
faithfully at Park Hill until his death, April 20, 1859. 

At Park Hill, May 23, 1810, he was bereaved of his wife, 
who was just such a helpmeet as Mr. Worcester needed 
during his eventful life. She was one from whom, he often 
said, he learned much that was of great benefit to him in 
his work. 

Having this family of six motherless children, about a 
year later he married the second time. Miss Erminia Nash, 
of Lowville, New York, a lady who had been teaching a 
mission school at Honey Creek station. She was a most 
devoted wife while he lived. She survived him thirteen 
years, and died of paralysis, at Fort Gibson, May 5, 1872. 
She sleeps near him in the cemetery near Park Hill, the 
place where for so many years he preached the blessed 
Gospel. 

During twenty years of the twenty-three he lived thero, 
he published an Almanac in Cherokee. This almanac he 
made a great power for good upon every moral question, 
especially the subject of temperance. The last number 
contains a powerful appeal to the Cherokee people for 
temperance. He was accustomed to travel through the 
country lecturing on this subject, taking with him a mu- 
sical instrument, and furnishing himself the hymns and 
songs. He was author of the "Cherokee Hymn Book." 

He expressed a desire not long before his death, to live 
to prepare a new edition of the Hymn Book, as well as to 
finisli the Bible. He wished to prepare a revised and 
larger book, saying, "2%ere is no one else who can do it/^ 
And he seems to have been correct in this feeling, for the 
Hymn Book has been reprinted since, witli very little 
change. He felt praise to be a very important part of 
worship, and never omitted it from family prayers. Even 
after his children were grown up, and he left with no one 
to help him in singing, he would sing alone, chanting most 
frequently, as he could best' manage chants on the instru- 
ment. 



- 23 — 

'I'lie last iiiinil»er of liis A linanac contains the statenieiil, 
that tlie Cherokee Iiil)le Society had then heen in exist- 
ence seventeen .years, and the Mission Chun-h aid Semi- 
nary at Park Hill, near Tahle(]uah, was contributinir Sl'"^ 
per year for foreijrn missions. Thus, in every department 
of his work, there was the evidence of excellent plaiminir, 
a clear takinjr in of dnn|rers and wants, and a healthy 
•rrowth. 

The practical <:ood sense, antl the ten«ler, charitable 
Christian spirit of Dr. Worcester is seen in the view which 
he took of the relation of denominations of Christians to 
each other, where only unimportant matters were involved. 
He was a Conj<rrc^'ationalist from education and from prin- 
ciple. Yet he had no feeling to prevent him from be- 
cominjra nn'mberof a Tresbytery, whenever circumstances 
preventeil his having: access to a Congrejrational Asso- 
ciation, or from bcin;.' a faithful attendant at its meetinjjs, 
even when «listance made it <IilVicult. When with the 
Cherokees, in their <»ld country, he and his associates did 
not orjranize a new and separate I-'c<lesiastical body, but 
became at once faithful members of the Presbytery of 
Maryville. When they came to the new country ami 
everything; was to be or^ranized anew, the Coiiirrej^ational 
form was adopted. 

The "Confession «»f Faith" .•md the "Covenant of the 
Chiir.h at Park Hill," ad(>pte<I .lune 4, ls37, were prepared 
by him. The creed is very plain and very simple; but 
whether the old or the n* tf creed, for substance. I do not 
know only one leels on readinL' it a lonfrim.' to rest in it 
entirely. 

In the remarks accompaiiyin;: it. Dr. Worcester says: 
"The Churches in the Cherokee Nation, t'ommonly called 
Presbyterian, are not as at present organized, I'resby terian, 
l)Ut Con^repitional. The ditVerence is not in doctrine, but 
in the mode of Church (lovernment. 

"Each Church has its own Confession of I'aith and 
Covenant. Those here printed are n«»t the Confission of 
Kallh and Covenant «»f all Con«,'regational Churches, but 
of the Cluirch at Park Hill. 



— 24 — 

" We require those whom we receive from the world to 
our communion, publicly to assent to oiir Confession of 
Faith and Covenant. The Confession of Faith is, there- 
fore, made to include only a few of the most important 
doctrines of Christian Faith, expressed in terms easily 
understood, that we may not exclude such as our Saviour 
accepts. 

" We examine those who offer themselves for admission 
to the Church, and receive only such as we are led to hope 
have become children of God, by the renewing of the Holy 
Spirit. 

*' Those who are received are received by vote of the 
Church, and if any are expelled, they are expelled by vote 
of the Church." 

And in his letter to the Brethren and Sisters, he adds : 
"Remember it is not the joining of the Church, but the 
Spirit of God dwelling in your heart, and governing 3'our 
life ;— not the maldng of a solemn vow, but the keeping of 
it, which proves your title to eternal life. You are the 
purchase of the Saviour's blood— tlie blood of the Son of 
(rod. Let your life honor your Redeemer." 

Asa preacher he was simple and earnest, and as a pas- 
tor tender and winning — in spirit he was an Edward Pay- 
son. One of his daughters says to me : " I wish to mention 
a characteristic of my father's preaching, Avliich I never 
saw so strongly exhibited in any other man ; it was his 
living faithfully up to the declaration — 'I am determined 
to know nothing among you, save Jesus Christ, and him 
crucified.' He made this mean that he would never preach 
a sermon, on whatever subject, in which he would not be- 
fore its close, so plainly bring in Redemption by Christ as 
that all might embrace it if they would. His skill in 
making this come in naturally, tvith whatever subject or 
text he might be handling, seemed to me remarkable." 

In the "Reminiscences" of Mrs. Boudinot, I find this 
reference : " When journeying to Arkansas we did not on 
every Saturday eve find it consistent to put up for the Sab- 



bath near a i»reacliing place, consequently spent the day 
in our tents as \ve would in our dwellings when deprived 
ol* thifi privilege. On one such occasion the writer was 
reading to her husband and children the Biography of 
William Carey, the early English missionary to India. 

Mr. i< , whose lamily tent was near by, came to our tent 

door, saying : ' Please tell me what you are reading? ' In a 
lew words I sketched the outline of the life of this truly 
great man, who left the shoemaker's bench and with his 
young family went to India at a period when trials, such as 
modern missionaries know nothing of, met him for a series 
of years, but who in hisclosingyears enjoyed a large release, 
and died a great Oriental scholar, freed from the poverty 
which at times closely pursue*! himself and family. Then 
I added: 'An*! since the days «>f the Apostle Paul, who 

has e<iiMillcd himV" .Mr. II replied, empliatically : 

' You are describing our missionary, liev. Samuel A. Wor- 
cester; and I hope to see the day wlien his labor for us 
shall be appreciated, and he be at the head of a College 
among tlie rherokees. Our school fund is ample, as you 
know.' This honor neither liveti to see, but the recent 
institution at Vinita, under the care and supp«)rt of the 
.\merlcan Home .Missionary Society, an«l in charge of He\ . 
I'rof. Isaac N. (untlall, enjoys his worthy name, much to 
the gratification of his children, his vrrandchildren, and 
one surviving associate— imleed, of a grateful people, who 
are dellgiited In knowing that this new seat of learning Is 
behi},' so bles-ed to the rising generation of tin* Indian 
race." 

lint his anxious mind lal»ored earnestly in interpreting 
and giving to the Chen*keesthe Bible. HesuU'ereda long 
and very painful illness, during which, on his bed, he con- 
tinued his work, with his interpreti-r, on the Hible, In 
Cherokee, as long as he could use his ])en, and then dic- 
tated as long as he could command his thoughts for the 
work, the wlille being obliged to He In one position, and 
that On his f'u<( . 



26 



"I would be willing to live for years, suffering as I do 
now," he exclaimed, "if I could only finish the work of 
giving the Cherokees the Bible." 

The Rev. Mr. Torrey, of the Cherokee Mission, wrote : 

" The Lord has removed the main prop of our mission, 
and taken our dear brother Worcester to himself. He 
died on Wednesday, April 20 (1859), at a quarter before 
six in the morning. His death w^as very quiet, entirely 
without a struggle. He suffered intensely, but bore all 
with wonderful patience and cheerfulness. 

" It was a great, a very great trial for him to give up the 
work of translation ; he clung to it more closely than he 
clung to life, and reluctantly gave it over when it became 
a physical impossibility for him to continue it any longer. 
The Cherokee of Thessalouians, Titus, Philemon and part 
of Hebrews is a monument to liis perseverance and his 
eager desire to complete the work which (lod bad entrusted 
to his hands. 

*' For some time after he had been obliged to lay aside 
the work, if a question were presented to him in regard to 
the rendering or the meaning of a passage, he would arouse 
himself and throw his whole soul into the matter with an 
energy which we felt could not but be injurious, and it was 
found necessary to call his mind to the subject as little as 
possible. 

" Of the magnitude of the loss we have sustained in this 
bereavement it is needless for me to speak. It will be 
long, very long, before we find it out in all its length and 
breadth. 

"It is a loss to this people which I fear can never be 
repaired." 

"I shall be satisfied when I awake in thy likeness," 
was his expression in view of death, and it indicated the 
longing to be freed from sin, which ruled his life. 



rO/^ 



A small neat shaft of Rutland marble marks the place 
at Park Hill where the mortal part awaits the last trum- 
pet'.s call to immortality. 

On the two sides of the sliaft are the names of his two 
wives. The faoe hears this inscription : 

''JU:\. -. A. W()RrP:STEIl. D. 1)., 

For 34 years a Missionary of the American Board of Com- 
missioners for Foreijrn Missions anion jr the Cherokees. 
To his work they owe their Bihle and Hynm Book.'' 

To this ^iHnl man. and to such jrood men as have been 
Hent to us as Missionaries and Missionary Teachers, we 
owe largely our advaneed position amon^ Indian tribes, 
and the pre<Mous advantajjcs we now enjoy. 

We echo the senliment of Dr. Alden, Secretary of the 
American Board, in his recent address at the Seventy- 
fifth Anniversary of I'ark Street Ciiurch, Boston, where 
J)r. Worcester was ordained as a Minister of the Gospel, 
and as a Foreijrn Missionary: "Let his name, SAMn-.i. 
A. WoucK.'^TKH, and his hist<»ry, never be f«»rgotten in 
eo!iiieetion with tlie ( Jeor^la Penitentiary, Chiekamau^'^.i, 
Missionary Hidge, the weary, travfic exodus to .\rkaiis:is. 
and tlie Academy which now bears his name at \'init:», 
in the Indian TerritMry." 

May the .\cademy, whos*- anniversary \n e celebrate to- 
day, be worthy of the name it bears —committed to every 
^ood w«»rk and stiujf^linjr heroically, even at cost of suf- 
fering, to be a lilessln^^ to the Cherokee Nation, for whom 
the noble Worcester ^-ave his life. 










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